Tracking device for automatic musical instruments.



G. M. RUSSELL.

TRACKING DEVKIE FOR AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED lAN.22 l9l3.

Patented Oct. 30,1917.

Wiinesaes.

UNITED STATES. PATENT OFFTCYE.

GUY MANLY RUSSELL, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YQRK, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN PIANO COMPANY, OF NEVJ YQRK, N. Y., A CQEPORATION (3F NEW JERSEY.

TRACKING DEVICE FQR AUTGI-JTATIG l+IUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Application filed January 22, 1913.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GUY MANLY RUssnLL, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Rochester, county of Monroe, and State of New York, have invented an Improve ment in Tracking Devices for Automatic Musical Instruments, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to apparatus for automatically insuring the proper tracking of a perforated note sheet over the tracker bar of an automatic piano-player or playerpiano.

Several types of apparatus for the same general purpose have been used heretofore, but in some cases the operation has been rendered undesirably slow or sluggish by the presence of one or more valves in the pneumatic system which serve to re-adjust the note sheet when it is displaced from proper alinement. This sluggishness of operation, occasioned principally by the necessity to operate the controlling valve preliminarily to starting a re-adjustment, has rendered such apparatus objectionable in that the note sheet was allowed time enough to be materially displaced from alinement before the'sluggishly operating apparatus would become effective to l e-adjust it. It is one of the objects of this invention to obviate these difficulties by providing apparatus Which, in effect, more truly maintains the note sheet in proper alinement as distingnished from re-adjusting it thereto after it has become materially displaced.

The character of the invention may be readily understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a tracking attachment for automatic piano-players and player-pianos, including the usual record spool, tracker, take-up roll and asso ciated parts, with one form of the invention applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is a plan View of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a detailed section on the line 33 of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, the note sheet 5 is wound from a spool 6 onto a take-up Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 30, 1917.

Serial No. 743,442.

roll 7 passing over the tracker 8 with the usual vents.

The spool 6 is journaled upon a plug 9 provided with a spring 10 which tends to press the plug 9 and spool 6 together with the note sheet mounted. upon the latter toward the right in the drawing until the right-hand end of the spool brings up against a stop device presently described. Similarly, the take-up roll 7 is journaled upon a plug 11 having a spring 12.

The opposite end of the spool 6 is ourna led upon a plug 18 of an axially slidable shaft 1%; and the corresponding end of the takeup roll 7 is mounted upon an axially slidable shaft 15. These shafts are provided with the usual driving mechanism for winding and re-winding the note sheet, but this mechanism, forming no part of the present invention, is omitted from the drawings. Bearing upon the ends of the shafts 14 and 15 respectively are cams 16 and 17 fixed upon a common shaft 18. The shaft has a fixed arm 19 by which it may be rotated to operate the cams 16 and 17. Obviously the springs 10 and 12, pressing the spool and take-up roll and their shafts 14: and 15 toward the right in Fig. 1, hold the spool and takeup roll and the note sheet in such position as is determined by the positions of the cams 16 and 17. For example, in the illus trative preferred embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, if the shaft 18 be rocked clockwise in Fig. 2, the cams 16 and 17 will force the shafts l t and 15 toward the left to move the note sheet toward the left; and vice versa.

The arm 19 of the shaft 18 is connected by a link 20 to an operating arm 21 fixed upon the movable board 22 of a pneumatic 23. A second pneumatic 24 has its movable board 25 rigidly connected by a plate 26 with the movable board Thus, the boards 22 and 25 of the two operating pneumatics are, in effect, a single rigid board, and the two pneumatics are thereby compelled to operate conjointly and in unison. For instance, if the exhaust in the pneumatic 24 exceeds in degree that in the pneumatic 23, the former will collapse somewhat, the latter will expand correspondingly, and as a result of this conjoint action the shaft 18 will be rocked clockwise in provided Fig. 2 to adjust the note sheet toward the left.

These operating pneumatics 23 and 24c, in the illustrative preferred embodiment, are continuously under the influence of an exhaust. A duct 30 connects with any practicable source of exhaust, for instance the main feeder bellows system, and leads into a. channel 31 shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2 and in cross-section in Fig. 3. This channel 31 is connected with the pneumatics and 2st through respective bleeder vents 32 and 33. As illustrated in Fig. 3, the bleeder vent 32 is in the form of a thimble having a small hole therein and located in a duct which leads from the channel 31 to a. duct 3i, the mouth 35 of which opens into the interior of the pneumatic. It will be understood that the arrangement shown in Fig. 3 is duplicated for the pneumatic 23.

The interior of the pneumatic 23 is connected by a duct 37 with the tracker vent 38 located near the left-hand margin of the sheet; and the interior of the pneumatic 2a is similarly connected by a duct 4E0 with a tracker vent a2 near the right-hand margin of the sheet. Each of the vents 38 and i2 is preferably somewhat elongated lengthwise of the tracker; and they are so positioned that when the note sheet is in exact desired alinement relative to the tracker, both vents 3S and 42 will be preferably nearly but not altogether closed to leave what, in effect, are equal bleeding vents, one at each margin of the sheet. Thus, when the note sheet is in proper alinement, atmosphere is admitted equally to the two vents 38 and 42; but if the note sheet is displaced from alinement, one of the vents is open to a greater extent and the other is more nearly, or entirely, closed, whereby atmosphere is admitted in greater degree at. one vent than at the other.

In this described illustrative preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be observed that each tracker vent 38 and 42 is the terminus of a pneumatic system which is continuously open and in active condition. In other words, from each tracker vent 3S and 42 there is continuous open communication through a duct37 or 40, through a. pneumatic or 2i, through a bleeder vent 32 or 33, and thence to the main supply of exhaust. The bleeder vents 32 and 33 are of the same capacity as are also the several corresponding ducts of the two systems. Under these conditions, so long as the leakage of atmosphere is equal at the two vents 38 and 42, the two pneumatics 23 and 2st are equally exhausted and maintained in a balanced condition, the parts being so adjusted that this balanced condition corresponds to the correct alinement of the note sheet between the vents 38 and 42. Immediately the note sheet tends to move out of alinement, the vent 38 or 42 toward which the note sheet is displaced, is restricted by the margin of the sheet, and the other vent is opened so that the condition of balance is instantaneously disturbed. For instance, if the note sheet were even minutely displaced toward the left in Fig. 1, the vent 38 would be restricted and the vent enlarged, whereby atmosphere would be admitted to the pneumatic 2a in greater degree than to the pneumatic 23. This would disturb the balance between the pneumatic conditions in the two systems, reducing the degree of exhaust in the pneumatic 2i and increasing the degree of exhaust in the pneumatic 23. The pneumatic 2i would thereupon expand somewhat and the pneumatic 23 would correspondingly collapse thereby rocking the shaft 18 contracloc-kwise in Fig. 2 and permitting the springs 10 and 12 to push their respective rolls toward the right to restore the quality of the vents 38 and i2 and thereby to restore the balance between the two pneumatic systems.

It will be evident that the direct and uninterrupted communication through these two pneumatic systems, they being subject to no relaying of pneumatic effects by primary valve actions or the like,-insures a maximum responsiveness and rapidity of operation such that there is actually an effectual maintenance of the note sheet in proper alinement as distinguished from the re-adjustment inaugurated only after a substantial displacement had occurred.

It is to be understood, of course, that the invention is not limited to the particular construction, organization. and mode of operation above described for illustration since it may be variously embodied, as will appear to those skilled in the art.

Claims:

1. In a piano player, in combination, a tracker board, means for passing a music sheet longitudinally over said tracker board, and tracking-control mechanism including a pneumatic for effecting relative lateral movement between said sheet and said tracker board, said pneumatic adapted to be completely extended and completely collapsed, means for continuously exerting pressure on said pneumatic in all positions thereof from its completely extended to its completely collapsed position and means for varying said pressure in proportion to the extent of said lateral movement so as to produce a continuously undulating pressure on said pneumatic during the playing of a piece of music. i

2. Tracking-control. mechanism for piano players or the like including a pneumatic having a port of fixed open area and unthrottled in all positions and means for caus-;

ing a continuous flow of air through said pneumatic and said port in all positions of the pneumatic when the sheet is tracking normally, and means for causing a variation in the pressure of air flowing through said pneumatic.

3. Tracking-control mechanism for piano players or the like including a pneumatic having air admission and exhaust ports, the a'reaof at least one of said ports being fixed and unthrottled in all positions and the area of the other variable and means acting continuously in all positions of the pneumatic for causing a flow of air through said ports when the sheet is tracking normally.

at. Tracking-control mechanism for piano players or the like including a pneumatic having air admission and exhaust ports, a suction device communicating with said exhaust port, said exhaust port being of fixed open area and unthrottled in all positions of the pneumatic and said admission port being continuously open when the sheet is tracking normally and being varied in area as the music sheet shifts laterally.

5. Tracking-control mechanism for piano players or the like including a part having an aperture which is partially open and partially covered by the music sheet in the normal position of the latter, a pneumatic of which said aperture constitutes an admission port which is varied in area as the sheet shifts laterally, and a suction device communicating with said pneumatic through a bleed hole of fixed open area and unthrottled in all positions.

6. Tracking-control mechanism for piano players or the like including a part having an aperture which is partially open and partially covered by the music sheet in the normal position of the latter, a pneumatic of which said aperture constitutes an admission port which is varied in area as the sheet shifts laterally, and a suction device communicating with said pneumatic through a bleed hole of fixed open area and unthrottled in all positions, said pneumatic being adapted to cause a tracking adjustment in one direction and a spring tending to cause such an adjustment in the opposite direction.

7. Tracking-control mechanism for piano players or the like including in combination a pneumatic having an exhaust port of fixed open area and unthrottled in all positions of the pneumatic, a suction device communicating constantly with said pneumatic through said exhaust port, and an admission port normally partly covered by the sheet and to be varied in open area as the music sheet shifts laterally, and means pressing continuously in a direction opposed to the pressure on the pneumatic.

8. In combination with an adjustable element of a piano player or the like, an automatic controlling mechanism including a pneumatic having continuously open air admission and exhaust ports, at least one of said ports being of fixed open area and unthrottled in all positions, and means for varying the relation between the quantity of air admitted and the quantity of air exhausted during the playing of a piece of music.

9. In combination with an adjustable element of a piano player or the like, an automatic controlling mechanism including a spring for shifting said element in one direction, a pneumatic for shifting it in the opposite direction, said pneumatic having an admission port which is automatically varied during the playing of a piece of music, and a suction device communicating with said pneumatic through a bleed hole of fixed open area and unthrottled in all positions.

10. An adjusting device comprising a pneumatic having a port of fixed open area and unthrottled in all positions, means for applying a continuous suction to said pneumatic through said port and means for ad mitting air continuously in varying quantr ties to said pneumatic to cause a continuous flow of air under varying pressure during the playing of a piece of music.

11. In a piano player, in combination, a tracker board, means for passing a music sheet longitudinally over said tracker board,

and tracking-control mechanism including a pneumatic for effecting lateral movement of the note sheet, said pneumatic adapted to be completely extended and completely collapsed, means for continuously exerting pressure on said pneumatic in all positions thereof from its completely extended to its completely collapsed position and means for varying said pressure in proportion to the extent of said lateral movement so as to pro duce a continuously undulating pressure on said pneumatic during the playing of a piece of music.

12. Trackingcontrol mechanism for piano players or the like including a pneumatic having a port of fixed open area and unthrottled in all positions and means for causing a continuous flow of air through said pneumatic and said port in all positions of the pneumatic when the sheet is tracking normally, a pair of spools between which said music sheet runs, means connecting said pneumatic with said spools for effecting lateral movement thereof, and means for causing a variation in the pressure of air flowing through said pneumatic.

l3. Tracking-control mechanism for piano players or the like including a pneumatic having air admission and exhaust ports, the area of at least one of said ports being fixed and unthrottled in all positions and the area of the other variable and means acting con tinuously in all positions of the pneumatic for causing a flow of air through said ports when the sheet is tracking normally, a note 7 continuously open when the sheet is tracking normally and being varied in area as the music sheet shifts laterally, a note sheet spool, and means connecting said pneumatic with said note sheet spool for effecting lateral movement thereof.

15. Tracking-control mechanism for piano players or the like including a part having an aperture which is partially open and partially covered by the music sheet in the normal position of the latter, a pneumatic of which said aperture constitutes an admission port which is varied in area as the sheet shifts laterally, a suction device communicating with said pneumatic through a bleed hole of fixed open area and unthrottled in all positions, a note sheet spool, and means connecting said pneumatic with said note sheet spool for effecting lateral movement thereof.

16. Tracking-control mechanism for player pianos or the like including two pneumatics each havin a port of fixed open area for causing a continuous flow of air through said pneumatic and said port in all positions of the pneumatics when the sheet is tracking normally, and means for causing an increase in pressure in one of said pneumatics and a simultaneous decrease of pressure in the other of said pneumatics.

17. Tracking-control mechanism for piano players or the like including two Pneumatics each having air admission and exhaust ports, the area of at least one of said ports in each of said pneumatics being fixed and unthrottled in all positions and the area of the other ports being variable, and means acting continuously in all positions of said pneumatics for causing a flow of air through said ports when the sheet is tracking normally.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GUY MANLY RUSSELL.

WVitnesses Ron'r. H. WAND, E. N. SMITH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patent! Washington, D. G. 

